Should Nintendo make iPhone games?

There’s no denying that Nintendo is in trouble right now. It took awhile for the company’s latest portable console, the Nintendo 3DS, to start selling in decent volumes and their upcoming next-generation touch screen-focused console, the Wii U, has the entire company’s future riding on its shoulders.

Over the past few years, increasing popularity of smartphones and app stores has taken a significant amount of attention away from Nintendo’s 3Ds and has stolen much of the casual gaming market the company had during the Wii’s prime.

It’s never going to happen, though. This is Nintendo we’re talking about, after all. The company’s president, Satoru Iwata, has firmly stated on multiple occasions that Nintendo titles will never be on anything but their own hardware.

That didn’t stop one keen fan who has launched a web and Facebook campaign in an effort to convince Nintendo to start putting their games on smartphones. The project, called Nintendo Go Mobile, gives fans and Nintendo a look at how the company could eventually bring their content to smartphones and tablets.

Interestingly, Sony has already started to dabble with putting their games on smartphones with PlayStation Mobile. Whether this business model will end up being successful remains to be seen. Back in the early 2000s, one-time gaming giant Sega also called it quits and started to develop games for other systems. We all know how that turned out for the company (I feel bad for Sonic, though you can still play some Sonic games on mobile platforms).

The Nintendo Go Mobile project even includes a conceptual idea for a Nintendo-developed game controller that could potentially attach to iPhones.

“We support Nintendo. We want them to succeed. But when looking at the rapid processor and graphical growth in mobile phones, it seems unlikely Nintendo will be able to compete in the handheld space in the near future. I have always liked Nintendo’s portable systems and still do, but from a business standpoint they cannot keep up,” was posted on the campaign’s official Facebook page.

The campaign has received a mixed response from Nintendo fans.

Some feel that this would be a great idea and is definitely the direction Nintendo should be taking their company. Others feel that dedicated handheld gaming devices like the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita will always provide a much deeper gaming experience than a casual smartphone game could ever provide.